Robert James Bidinotto

One day in the 1940’s, a young reporter asked Ayn Rand about the new novel he heard that she was planning. She replied: “It will combine metaphysics, morality, economics, politics, and sex – and it will show the tie between metaphysics and economics.”

Background

Atlas Shrugged is structured in three major parts, each of which consists of ten chapters. The parts and chapters are named, and the titles typically suggest multiple layers of meaning and implication.

Explanatory Note: Scholars, students, and fans of Ayn Rand’s masterwork, Atlas Shrugged, often find it difficult to grasp the complex details of its plot, and to find temporal reference points for key events and relationships among its many characters. For their benefit, then, I have prepared this timeline of the key events that are depicted, or alluded to, in the novel.

Background

Atlas Shrugged is structured in three major parts, each of which consists of ten chapters. The parts and chapters are named, and the titles typically suggest multiple layers of meaning and implication.

One evening after the publication of The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand was on the phone, discussing her disappointment over early sales with author Isabel Paterson. Paterson suggested that Rand stop trying to offer her radical ideas in fictional form, and instead write a nonfiction treatise. Rand disagreed.

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Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism was set forth in her epic novels Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, and in her brilliant non-fiction essays. The Atlas Society promotes Objectivism and its core values: reason, achievement, individualism, and freedom.